keep our pets safe

Ice, Ice, Baby! Seems like it is everywhere. We had a solid sheet of snow and ice on the driveway and after trying to wait it out for some of it to thaw the reality of it was that we had to shovel. So finally we got to use the snow blower, however I don't think it was made for all of this ice. I was tempted to get some flavorings out and make snowballs. After three hours of this snow blower dragging me around up and down hills I am beat. Of course the crazy dogs were having a ball running in front of the shooting snow then race around and come back for a face full of more. Idiots! We had to use 280 pounds of ice melt! I gave the mailman a good laugh. As he was putting mail in the box I waived only leaving one hand on the monster machine as I hit a patch of ice and landed on my butt.


I was able to get a picture of one of the woodpeckers a couple days ago and hope that you will be able to see it. This one is a small version compared to some of the others that we have.



Click on picture to enlarge and look to the middle of the second tree from your right.
Speaking of birds I have to share this story. We went to MacDonald's in town about 4 months ago and I noticed a one legged seagull there in a flock of about 50. They have migrated from where the water is about 20 miles to this parking lot. Well we ate their the other day and who should I see but this one legged sea gull that stands on the hood of my truck. He was really pitiful to look at. The leg was missing from let's say the knee down. I know birds probably don't have knees but I will use this since I am not up on my bird anatomy. Then I realized after looking around that several of these birds were missing legs. It was just terrible to look out and I am assuming that this may be due to power lines. I felt so bad for those poor birds!





Finally some of my herbs are taking off and maybe in a couple of months I will have enough to use.
















I have heard about ILL. Governor Blagajevich inevitable ousting that is approaching. Please give me a break on this one. Now is there anyone you know that could keep their job after all of this? Is this man in his right mind to even think that Oprah Winfrey would consider giving up her time and the money she makes to be a senator? Sheer craziness if you ask me that is tolerated way too long.

Must say that the Indian cuisine that I prepared the other day turned out really well. Lisa enjoyed it and as I ate mine I had beads of sweat present on my forehead and brow. It was hot! The whole house smelled like a spice factory. I counted and it was 14 spices total. One of the many spices they use in cooking is called garam masala and is a blend of cumin, coriander, cardamom, peppercorns, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and saffron. You actually roast most spice seeds than crush and blend together. The smell of the roasted spices is really aromatic and wonderful to smell. The house smelled like a restaurant for two days.

I was researching dog food when I came across a site that many consumers had complained about the Nutro Natural Choice dry dog food. This is what I use myself and was horrified to read about the deaths and sickness that many pet owners contribute to this dog food in the recent months. So as a heads up, anyone who is using this may want to do some research on this to see if your pet may be in danger from consuming this brand of food. Just reading what goes into dog food was kind of really gross to think about. Most people can not afford those really high priced foods and are relying on the fact that most food is safe for our pets. They even use sick and dead cows to add to foods along with the intestines, heads, hooves, and many other gross parts. There seems to be alot of room for error here and maybe the government should create and impose stricter guidelines to keep our pets safe.